need perfect pitch to play trombone ?

[Newell Post]

I have a friend who worked as a music therapist (and excellent recreational musician). She said that in her entire career she only met two people with perfect pitch. Neither of them became advanced or even intermediate musicians because when they were students, playing in student bands and orchestras just kind of drove them around the bend. Perfect pitch made the cacophony of student ensembles completely intolerable to them. OTOH, it didn't seem to hurt Pavarotti very much; nor did the inability to read music.

[BigDub]

@Newell-Post said in need perfect pitch to play trombone ?:

I have a friend who worked as a music therapist (and excellent recreational musician). She said that in her entire career she only met two people with perfect pitch. Neither of them became advanced or even intermediate musicians because when they were students, playing in student bands and orchestras just kind of drove them around the bend. Perfect pitch made the cacophony of student ensembles completely intolerable to them. OTOH, it didn't seem to hurt Pavarotti very much; nor did the inability to read music.
I often hear the definition of perfect pitch ( not from the dictionary ) as having been born with this ability to identify every single note they hear, or be able to produce any note on demand.
I say, they have to be educated first, to learn what the pitches are in the first place. A person born into other musical cultures, i.e. Asian, African, and indigenous tribes from various countries, they have different scales, pitch frequencies, etc, would affect them accordingly.
In other words, a baby just learning to talk hears the note on Mom's car radio and says, "mommy, that note is an A"
really isn’t what happens, is it.

[Newell Post]

@BigDub From what I have read about PP, the ability to identify a pitch is completely unrelated to the ability to produce a particular note upon demand. Yes, a person with PP needs to be taught that "A" = 440 Hz (or whatever convention is used in the culture in question). But once they learn that convention, they can apparently always identify it.

[nieuwguyski]

I played trombone for 20 years or so, and was relatively decent toward the end. I don't have perfect pitch, but have pretty good relative pitch.

I played for years with a trombone player who had perfect pitch, and he was quite an excellent player. But he freely admitted that he didn't think perfect pitch was much of an advantage over excellent relative pitch.

[Tobylou8]

@nieuwguyski said in need perfect pitch to play trombone ?:

I played trombone for 20 years or so, and was relatively decent toward the end. I don't have perfect pitch, but have pretty good relative pitch.

I played for years with a trombone player who had perfect pitch, and he was quite an excellent player. But he freely admitted that he didn't think perfect pitch was much of an advantage over excellent relative pitch.

The answer is ........ no. If the internet is correct, only 1 in 10,000 have absolute/perfect pitch. If only 1 in 10,000 joined bands, tuning would be easier! I have perfect /absolute pitch. Discovered it by accident when singing in choir. They were amazed at how I could remember the starting note on all our acapella pieces. In high school I was the pitch pipe for our chorus. It certainly makes it easier to play in tune and to let others know when they aren't within the section. When starting out in a community band, I commented that the person playing the tuning pitch was always a little sharp. I was informed that the director wanted the band tuned to 442. Made sense as to why they were sharp! I agree that it isn't a big advantage. Perfect pitch and $5 will get me a Venti Americano at Starbucks!

[BigDub]

@Tobylou8 wow. That's you?
I have fairly decent relative pitch, and my biggest pet peeve was singing in a choir doing a capella. Me singing tenor.
The tenor section would stick to my pitch. We were continually chastised for being sharp. I would get so angry because the other sections would drop a half tone after about a couple of measures into the piece. Every time.
So, what, we had to purposely sing flat to match their wrong notes? I guess so. Apparently. I did not enjoy singing a capella with this group. It was near torture.

[Tobylou8]

@BigDub said in need perfect pitch to play trombone ?:

@Tobylou8 wow. That's you?
I have fairly decent relative pitch, and my biggest pet peeve was singing in a choir doing a capella. Me singing tenor.
The tenor section would stick to my pitch. We were continually chastised for being sharp. I would get so angry because the other sections would drop a half tone after about a couple of measures into the piece. Every time.
So, what, we had to purposely sing flat to match their wrong notes? I guess so. Apparently. I did not enjoy singing a capella with this group. It was near torture.

Torture is ear buds on Sunday morning with a female lead and no way to "escape"!!

[BigDub]

@Tobylou8 if I didn’t know better I would think someone was afraid to hurt feelings.....he couldn’t bring himself to tell most of the group they were flat.
I often thought to myself, you don’t get people to stay on pitch by telling them they are not on pitch. Tell them, "if you're always flat, maybe, just maybe you might want to think sharper?" But no. The easy way out was to chastise my section for not listening to the rest of the choir.
That didn’t sit well with me as I steadily let myself go flatter so I didn’t offend the sopranos. Oy!

[trickg]

@Tobylou8 said in need perfect pitch to play trombone ?:
Perfect pitch and $5 will get me a Venti Americano at Starbucks!

Yay - 20 oz of terrible coffee.

[Tobylou8]

@trickg said in need perfect pitch to play trombone ?:

@Tobylou8 said in need perfect pitch to play trombone ?:
Perfect pitch and $5 will get me a Venti Americano at Starbucks!

Yay - 20 oz of terrible coffee.

[Kehaulani]

Ref. the rest of the section playing flat, maybe he's playing sharp. I have played in bands that tune differently than A=440. A player may play right but his (perfect pitch?) tuning may be different that the rest of the band's. In which case, he's the one who is wrong, not tactful.

[BigDub]

I think in some cases a sense of pitch, no matter how little, is better than what I have to listen to in my community band. One of the trombone players, bless his heart, plays about a half step off.
Can’t he hear that? It's actually painful for me.
He doesn’t come around that much.........that is sadly a relief. I don’t wish any harm to him, but only wish he could hear how off he is, or someone in the section tap him on the shoulder, maybe with a Louisville Slugger ( if necessary).
Just kidding about that.

[Bob Pixley]

I know one person with perfect pitch. Coincidentally, he is a trombone player...a very good one...